Medals race starts after flashy opening

GAMES ON:After a build-up dogged by controversies, the 22nd Winter Olympics officially opened on Friday with a display that dazzled even the foreign press

AFP, SOCHI, Russia

Taiwan’s flag-bearer Sung Ching-yang, front, leads the nation’s contingent during the athletes’ parade at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics on Friday in Sochi, Russia.

Photo: Reuters

Olympic athletes were yesterday competing for the first medals of the Sochi Winter Games after Russia staged a thrilling opening ceremony that impressed even foreign skeptics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin late on Friday declared the 22nd Winter Olympics open in a ceremony that took 40,000 people packed into the Fisht Stadium and TV viewers around the world on a lightning tour through Russian history.

Thousands of fireworks exploded above the venue on the Black Sea coast during a ceremony that won gushing global praise despite an early glitch when one of the Olympic rings failed to appear.

“We missed this for so many years... a pride for our country, a feeling for her power, unity and greatness. Yesterday, we felt it,” the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily said.

After a build-up dogged by controversies on issues ranging from Russia’s gay-rights record to security, the successful ceremony took some pressure off the organizers, who have been under unprecedented scrutiny.

In Games that are among the most politically charged of recent times, the focus moved to the sporting action yesterday at sea-level and in the mountains above Sochi. Five gold medals were up for grabs.

The high-octane ceremony, devised by the powerful boss of Russia’s Channel One television Konstantin Ernst, got off to a rocky start when one of five illuminated artificial snowflakes that were supposed to morph into the Olympic rings failed to open, leaving just four rings.

However, organizers brushed off the mishap, admitting that they covered up the glitch on Russian state TV by quickly inserting footage of the segment they had recorded days earlier.

The unflappable Ernst drew on Buddhist philosophy.

“There is a saying that you have to kick out the uneven part of a perfectly polished ball to understand how perfect it is,” he said.

Thereafter the show charmed and stunned in equal measure, taking viewers on a lightning tour through Russian history and culture, guided by a young girl named Lyubov (Love).

“We want to break stereotypes and show the world the new Russia,” said the head of the Sochi organizing committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko.

The Russian team won huge cheers as they entered to the song Nas ne dogonyat (“Not gonna get us”) by female pop duo Tatu, known for their raunchy lesbian-tinged pop videos.

The flame had been brought into the stadium by US-based Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova and the final relay included Olympic rhythmic gymnastics champion Alina Kabayeva, who has been rumored in some quarters to be Putin’s lover.

Even the foreign press, which have been hugely critical of Russia in the days up to the Games, heaped praised on the ceremony.

“For Russia last night it marked its revival as a post-Soviet powerhouse, confident of its seat at the top table after two decades of doubt and despondency,” Britain’s Daily Mail wrote.

Putin, who spearheaded the successful bid in 2007, welcomed more than 40 other heads of state and leaders for the ceremony, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

However, US President Barack Obama as well as the leaders of key EU states Britain, France, and Germany were conspicuous by their absence, a move seen by many as a snub over Russia’s notorious anti-gay law.